Kinetic features of a lymphoid population in the blastic crisis of chronic granulocytic leukaemia

Abstract Kinetic and chromosome studies were performed on the primitive cells from a patient in the blastic phase of chronic granulocytic leukaemia who had two distinct cell populations. Lymphoblastic cells predominated and stained with fluorescent labelled anti-acute lymphoblastic leukaemic sera. There was variation in the proliferative activity of the myeloid population but the lymphoid cells remained essentially quiescent. A Ph 1 chromosome was identified in the myeloid but not found in the lymphoid cells. The findings suggest the presence of a population unlike those of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with limited metabolic capacity.